The search for a leader:
Three candidates are vying to be the next PSU president. Over the next week the Vanguard will profile the candidates, bringing you their stories.
Portland State presidential candidate Wim Wiewel believes in a university’s power of civic engagement.
Wiewel, who is on campus today to meet with students and staff, is currently the provost and senior vice president of academic affairs at the University of Baltimore. He said he sees PSU as a promising university because it knows its role–that of both a global force and an important part of the local community.
“I think it wants to be that,” Wiewel said, “and seeks to be that way by being really relevant to its metropolitan area, and playing a leadership role. Portland State is able to do that. It’s a major player.”
Wiewel is one of three final candidates vying for the presidential position at Portland State. The candidate would replace interim President Michael Reardon, who replaced former President Daniel Bernstine when he departed to head the Law School Admission Council in Pennsylvania.
Wiewel said he learned about city planning through numerous city planning and economic development projects in Chicago, before and during his time as the dean of the College of Business Administration of the University of Illinois at Chicago.
“I liked being active in improving neighborhoods and communities,” Wiewel said. “I basically wanted to make cities a better place to live.”
The work Wiewel accomplished at the University of Illinois at Chicago has given him ample experience, he said, to make sure PSU continues its role as a major player in the Portland community.
“Portland State is not one of those universities that compare themselves to Harvard, or Yale, or Brown,” he said. “They do a good job providing educational access, and at the same time being pathbreaking and innovative in the research it does.”
That research can be found in PSU’s commitment to urban issues, Wiewel said.
“The whole focus about urban issues, about sustainability, those make sense. You want to be distinguished for more than natural beauty,” he said. “And being pathbreaking in something like sustainability–that can be a real economic strength for the region.”
In addition to making PSU a continued civic leader, Wiewel also stressed a president’s responsibility to advocate for more funding, not just from state funds but by spearheading increased fundraising and private-gift efforts.
“I should also say that at some level there will never be enough money,” he said. “If there ever is, it means that people have stopped hoping and dreaming.”
Finding and utilizing resources will always be part of any school’s, or president’s, job, he said.
“In a global economy, there is a knowledge economy,” Wiewel said. “We’re part of a knowledge economy. We have to step forward to play leadership roles.”
Wiewel grew up in the Netherlands, where he studied urban planning and sociology. He first visited the United States as an exchange student to New York City when he was 18, and later became a U.S. resident when he got married.
Wiewel stressed his enthusiasm about the prospect of leading PSU.
“What I know about Portland State, it just seems like a wonderful opportunity,” he said. “It’s got lots of challenges, like any institution, and it’s got a wonderful set of values that I identify with. It seems to have quite high ambitions, but they are reasonable. They’re realistic.”
Get involved
Wim Wiewel will be part of an open-campus forum today from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Smith Memorial Student Union Ballroom, room 355.